The Taig is really nice, but it is very easy to run out of Z height once the workpiece is in a vise and you have tooling mounted up. Simple drilling of a taller workpiece comes to mind. I can totally see the apeal to this.
I just kind of wonder why you wouldn't use some linear rails and some tooling plate to make something similar for less $$. The Kerk Leadscrew is nice, probably about $100 of the cost. So you might only be saving a couple hundred bucks making your own system.
One advantage to linear rails would be you could make the Z saddle custom (wider) so that you could mount Taig or other spindles more easily. Probably wouldn't need to make it this tall either. I think if my Taig was modified for about 10" of Z travel, that would really expand the Taig's abilities in terms of setup and tooling etc..
The Taig is also weight bound as far as the workpiece, vises, etc. so it' unlikely you would be using the 16" of height for parts that are that much larger before you hit the table's load carrying capacity. It definitely would give you more 'setup' space for tooling etc.. So that is a huge plus. I just wonder if 16" of z travel might be more height than you want i.e. more torque on the column.
I can't really tell how this attaches to the Taig's square column and that could be a bit of an issue too. Might be sloppy or might be a point of flex -- hard to say withough seeing a better installation example.
The "taller you make the z column, the more likely you would want an additional stiffening support similar to what others have done as a tramming aid/stiffener to support the z column. Probably end up doing this with any solution that makes the Taig taller in z.
My solution, was to buy a Grizzly G0704 for about $300 more than this. The G0704 only has 13" of z but it is so much heavier than the Taig and it can surface better/faster since I'm able to use a 2.5" face mill on it. I have the G0704 as a "manual" machine and it is used more than the Taig now for simple non-cnc'd things.
My Taig is CNC'd and I love it so don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the Taig. It is just a small desktop, and a fine one at that. Making it too big might ruin something exceptional?
If anyone has one of these on a Taig it would be great to see pictures of it.
Ian